A “non-partisan” political activism group that calls for gun control held a rally in Nashville Wednesday night on the year anniversary of the mass shooting at The Covenant School.
“Together, we will wear red and link arms as we mark the anniversary of one of our community’s darkest days and honor the memory of the hundreds of Tennessee lives lost to preventable firearm tragedies over the last year,” Voices for a Safer Tennessee said on its website. “Our goal is to form a chain of 13,000 people from Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt through Centennial Park and up Charlotte Avenue to our state capitol.”
The Tennessee Star reported on the founding of Voices for a Safer Tennessee in July 2023, as it and a host of other anti-gun groups set up shop in Tennessee.
The organization is run by former Republican strategist Todd Cruse, who headed a Political Action Committee (PAC) called DentaQuest PAC, which in 2022 donated heavily to an establishment Republican training organization called GOPAC, as well as the Democratic Lieutenant Governor’s Organization and ActBlue, the preferred fundraising platform for Democrats.
The organization encouraged those who couldn’t attend to watch the live stream of the event. Voices for a Safer Tennessee live-streamed the event, which began at 5 p.m., on its website.
“Whether you are part of the human chain or joining [from] home/work, you can honor the families of Covenant and all Tennesseans affected by firearm tragedies by joining the livestream of our program,” according to a post on X.
Various group members, religious leaders, and activists spoke from a podium.
“Change takes time. Don’t lose sight of the fact that change is slow,” Cruse told the crowd in a brief speech. “But if we stay together, work together, have conversation together, we can actually make things happen.”
Dr. Donovan McAbee is a liberal arts professor at Belmont University.
Describing March 27 as “a day that casts a long dark shadow over all of us here in Nashville.”
“Together, we choose not to give gun violence the final word, and we move forward together in hope for a better day to come for Tennesseans across the state and for people throughout our country,” he said.
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Pete D’Abrosca is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter.
Photo “Safer TN Linking Arms for Change Event” by Voices for a Safer Tennessee.
I suppose they also support keeping the murderer’s manifesto secret IN VIOLATION of Tennessee’s Open Record Law.
The very word ‘secrecy’ is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths, and to secret proceedings.” —John F Kennedy
These same people will also support all efforts to keep the manifesto from becoming public. The usual progressive think. Much can be learned from its release, in order to create workable and effective solutions. Yet the dems just thing gun bans are the answer. Well, that, and promoting trans issues, i.e. mental illness.
Not that it would make any difference to these brainwashed people but just take a look at the countries that have unarmed their people. They are being slaughtered and they have no freedom at all. As bad as these people think crime is now unarm Americans and you are going to see violence, murder escalate to unbelievable levels and the perp will be our own government and the criminals that WILL have guns. Give up your guns and you will lose your freedom and liberty and there will be no way to protect yourself from your own government. There is a reason why our founders made freedom of speech our first amendment and the right to bare arms the second amendment. Without the first and second amendment the rest of the Constitution is null and void. WAKE UP. Guns do not kill. People kill and believe me a person bent on killing someone will find a way. The bad guy will end up with guns and the good guy left helpless. Criminals do not follow laws and will get guns no matter how many laws you pass. Look at the US cities that have the strictest gun laws……they also have the highest murder by gun rates in America. Schools need to do more to protect their students. 1. Armed SROs, 2. Armed teachers 3. No admittance to the school during school hours unless they are a parent and then that parent must be escorted in and out of the building 4. Secured classroom doors 5. no glass entrance doors 6. Deliveries made after school hours 7. any visitor other than a parent must have an appointment and again they must be escorted in and out by an ARMED SRO 8. schools cannot be given a choice they will be mandated by law to comply with the safety measure.
You cannot take away the rights of law abiding Americans because of the illegal behavior of criminals.